BARBADOS.
267
though that descent is perniciously easy, and Nemo repente fuit turpissimus;
but what if, while you were meaning nothing, your trifling created anguish, your sport became death to the poor object of it ? When by exclusive attentions you have excited regard, by the development of talent or by the display and devotion of personal graces you have fascinated the mind and the heart, when by the meeting and the sinking eye, the faltering voice, the fervid tone, the retained hand, you have awakened the passion which you cannot l a y ; when you have wilfully done this in the cold blood of vanity, and it suits your convenience or your sated coxcombry to finish the scene by an altered mem, a distant courtesy, or an expression of surprise at the unexpected effects of your civility—will you be able to quiet your conscience with a jest ? Will you sleep on an adage of fools and a lie of your own ? What if the poor being, whose hopes you have changed into despair, whose garden you have blasted with mildew and rust, whose heaven you have darkened for evermore, shall suffer in silence, striving to bear her sorrow, praying for cheerfulness, pardoning without forgetting you, till the worm has eaten through to the life, and the body is emaciate which you have led in the dance, the voice broken on which you have hung, the face wan which you have flattered, and the eyes frightfully bright